The old man has been wanting a bluetick to hunt coons with. Found a nice looking Bluetick/GSP cross for a good price and I am waiting to hear back details on the dog. It appears to be approx. 4-6 months old. So, my questions are

Is the cross with GSP going to seriously hinder the dogs ability to track and stay focused on coons?

How old is too old to start a dog?

This would be sort of an experiment in training for us... I am more of an obedience trainer and the man has trained dogs to successfully retrieve doves, but neither of us has actually trained a coon dog though I grew up with them, they were my uncles. If it was a colossal failure on our part or the dogs part we would of course keep it, but want the odds to be in our favor that the dog would be successful.

Any info on training at home, breeds, and general info is very appreciated.

Not too old in my opinion. You want a dog that is big enough to run with older, more experienced hounds. If hunting and tracking is in his blood, he will learn naturally from other dogs. But of course, this also includes picking up their bad habits, like running deer and other "trash".

How sad that most of the deer hunters who throw stones at hounds have no concept that coon hunters despise a dog that will run and track a deer.

I raised and hunted Tennesee Walkers....outstanding dogs but hardheaded. But I think the prettiest bay of all hounds. Never did a lot of one on one training with my Walkers. Had the luxury of having a couple outstanding lead dogs. They did most of training for me. Man how I miss my Walkers....they had a personality I'll never forget and sure miss. Good luck.

Is the cross with GSP going to seriously hinder the dogs ability to track and stay focused on coons? Any info on training at home, breeds, and general info is very appreciated.

Just like race horses, the ability of a hunting dog depends on his/bloodline. I was fortunate to get all my blue ticks from a relative who has long since passed, as have all my hounds. He would never keep a dog that needed a shock collar, but instead, focused on breeding "broke" hounds. Nothing like having your dog return to you almost immediately after others in the group go chasing a hot deer.

Thank you for the replies, y'all. General consensus is his genetics are going to make the difference... I am still waiting to hear from the seller to ask more about how (at least his bluetick half) performed.

Unfortunately, it won't have another hound to pick things up from. Since that is the case, would waiting for at least a started dog be best?

If your wanting to use a coon hound, I would wait on a coon hound over a gsp/hound mix. If it was a mix between two treeing hound breeds that would be different. You should wait on a full blood treeing dog pup IMO. If you got the funds to buy a "started" hound that is already broke from running trash, YES, that is a no brainer, you should not even be considering attempting to train a pointer mutt to track and tree.

Can you train an older hound to tree. Yes, but it would be best if done by hunting it with other hounds. I took in an older Redbone once from a family home because the owners had a new baby and did not trust the dog around the baby. It was an indoor dog that had never been in the woods. On it's first walks in the woods it was confused by every obstacle be it a log, creek, rocks, etc. and had to work them out. But once I ran it with my Walkers it figured out the game fairly fast and did fine. With other hounds it was never the lead dog on a hunt, but I believe that was more related to the genetics of my Walkers and how they hunted than it was on the Redbone coming from a non hunting family home.

_________________________"Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. Oh! The places you'll go!" ~ Dr. Seuss

I, too would wait on a pure bred tree dog. If all he wants to hunt is coons, treeing walkers, black and tans, English, redbones would work as well as blueticks. If he wants to hunt a wider variety of game such as lions, then I would go with the blue dogs for sure...colder noses and tougher feet. You will need the tougher feet when you realize where a lion likes to hunt and travel.I train and keep my dogs in shape hunting coons around here but really love chasing the big felines.Adios,Gary